Disclaimer: I don't own Calvin and Hobbes…yet.

I realize that some of you might not like this. Let's get this straight: I myself believe that none of this will ever happen, even if aliens did threaten the earth. I just felt like writing this. No flames when we reach the Hobbes part, please. I would recommend skipping it if not for the fact that, when it hit's the next chapter, it is an important part of the story. Again, no flames for the Hobbes part. I FELT LIKE WRITING THIS!

* ** *

One might say it all began as two teenagers strolled down the street, not knowing, not caring, just being themselves.

Calvin squeezed her hand just a little tighter, making her squeal lightly. Calvin tried not to giggle but ended up braying with laughter. This resulting in him squeezing her hand harder more, and Susie shrieked, all the while laughing.

The two teens stopped only to wave to Will Allen, who rolled past with his mom in their new large, gas guzzling SUV.

The night air felt good, breathing down their backs, chilling them in some places, hardening others (a/n just meant to be nipples, just meant to be nipples. God, you people have sick minds). The moon was pregnant tonight, but was wrapped in a cover of clouds, hiding her moonlight. Calvin cursed it silently, because without light he could not see Susie's scarlet face.

"Come on, run with me!" He said, glee in his voice. "Why?!" She asked, squealing with laughter. "Because it feels so good!" He replied, sprinting down the inclined sidewalk. Behind him, Susie followed, shrieking with delight. There was something about July air that just felt so jolly, like Christmas. It chilled to the bone, and made you feel better, made you feel rejuvenated.

Calvin reached the bottom of the hill, Susie running shortly after. She laughed again and laced her fingers with Calvin's, and the two began to walk further into town. It was a beautiful night, and they were going to take advantage of the clean, July air which chilled and hardened beneath their clothes (still nipples).

Of course, in this clarity, it was easy for one to detect the smoke coming from Town Center. Too easy.

"Oh my God, a building's on fire!" exclaimed Susie as she saw the smoke lacing into the sky. Calvin took her hand and sprinted down the street and toward the gathering mass of people

…who were running opposite that of Calvin and Susie. Something was wrong. This was more than just a building fire-

"Oh Lord!" whispered Susie as the cause revealed itself from behind the Waterford Tower. It looked obscene, out of place, conspicuous to the eye, but factoring in the large fire raging behind it, and the fleeing people in front of it, it almost fit in.

Calvin stared into the chrome plates of a largish robot.

"Hussein's finally done it! Good Lord Susie, run!" cried Calvin over the roar of the crowd which suddenly surged between them, ripping their arms away from each other.

Calvin scanned the heads, looking for his fifteen year old lover. He saw her bob up once over the river of heads, and began to wade his way toward her as a shrieking cry could be heard and suddenly the Waterford Tower simply vaporized, just vanished from view.

"Susie!" he cried over another high-whistle and the scream of the crowd as over a hundred souls cried out in pain, and were suddenly silenced (corny Star Wars joke).

The robot was a good forty feet tall, and was looked to be a near human shape, maybe a little short on the body, and an absent head, but other than that it was humanoid. Its arms ended in claws as long as Calvin was tall, each wrist ending with a different sort of odd weapon. This wasn't the work of the Iraqi leader at all.

The robot's "head" was bubbled, more like it was run by a pilot than an AI program. Calvin pondered this, wondering who would be macabre enough to pilot such a machine.

Another whistle and a green light lanced into the crowd. Calvin watched in horror as several dozen people, caught in the blast, turned into living X-Ray's of themselves before their bones dematerialized. Calvin looked away quickly and fought for Susie.

The larger robot was bad enough, but soon smaller, sleeker robots, about twice as tall as Calvin, entered the scene. The faster runners of the crowd exiting Town Center were the first to die as the robots appeared from nowhere and began to sweep up the edges. Their weapons were not as elaborate as their forerunner, but they did look faster, being sleeker and thinner with a more aerodynamic shaping.

The new robots blasted into the crowd, mowing down people left and right.

Calvin reached Susie and laced her hands with his. "Whatever you do, don't let go! We got to make it out of here! We must take a back alley or something! Let's go!"

Calvin turned to run as the large robot sprayed fire into the crowd. The fire caught onto running humans, who became living candles. They danced as they seemed to melt before the robot, and soon became burning puddles of fluid.

Calvin sprinted forward, but halted when he felt Susie ripped from his hands. He U-turned quickly and found her on the ground. He reached down to scoop her up when a smaller robot stood in his way.

"Out of the way, bitch, or I'll make sure they never find your remains." threatened Calvin, but decided he should retake his offer when he realized he and Susie were the only remaining living things in Town Center. Everyone else had been eliminated. Calvin swallowed hard as the robot scooped up Susie, whose leg had broken, and another hovered over to Calvin and escorted him forward.

The large robot bent down on its knees to face Calvin and Susie as they were deposited before it.

"Hmmm…" a cold voice rang from somewhere in it's interior.

"The male I like. His haunches are strong, which will make him a prized member in my slave camp. I want the boy."

Calvin squirmed as a robot grabbed him and escorted him to the edge of the ring the robots had silently made.

"The girl, however, has weak upper body strength. She wouldn't last more than five years. Terminate her."

"Terminate her? Susie! Susie!"

Susie was drug into the center of the ring and four robots came forward. From their backs extended a thick fiber optic cable, making a snaking sound as it coiled onto the ground. Each one stuck one fiber into either one of her hands or feet. Susie cried in pain, and suddenly began to scream as she realized what was going on.

"Calvin! Calvin! Help me!"

"Susie!"

Calvin tried to squirm from the robots grasp, and managed to get his hands loose, but his feet had tangled on a corpse and Calvin came down on the pavement with a smack!

Susie breathed hard and started to foam as the robots started to rev up.

"Suuu-usiie!"

The robots tore off in different directions. Susie's exasperated, hitching chest was silenced as she suddenly had four of her five limbs ripped violently off. The large robot nodded with approval.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

* ** *

"Dammit, human, how many times must I tell you! Move!" Calvin recoiled as the steel mesh whip snapped around his waist, drawing a new belt of crimson fluid on his bare back. He cried out in pain, and collapsed. The small slave train carrying the large steel pole caught onto Calvin's attachment chain, and Calvin gasped as the slaves started to move on, dragging Calvin with him.

Calvin considered it, stopping right here, right now, letting the damned aliens kill him. He was near dead enough anyway. Having to work stripped from the waist up in the blazing hot sun with minimum food and water allowances, Calvin was ready to say screw it and end it all.

Calvin shifted uneasily under the pressure and he felt something in his pocket. It felt small, heart-shaped, golden, possibly containing the picture of his old lover.

Lord how he missed Susie. He thought of her every night, wishing she would return with a solution, with a way to somehow shoo these aliens out the door. Calvin longed to set eyes on her again, but alas, she was gone, murdered. He had seen it all. Calvin shuddered and felt himself swarmed with energy, somehow. He stood back up and began to aid in the lifting of the pole into place.

Two years. It had been two long years under the rule of these aliens. Nobody had a name for them, and simply referred to them as "the aliens." If one were to name them, it would have CNN, but alas, along with the rest of New York, it was abruptly vaporized by one, short blast from somewhere in orbit.

He had missed his sixteenth and seventeenth birthday. He had missed on Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and Easter, and the Simpson's 414th Episode Bash, celebrating their fifteenth season. How he had gotten into Simspsons in the end, but Matt Groening was as dead as Democracy was.

Calvin stumbled to his feet and began to drag on. The guards were watching them, and lately they had had a short temper, of course, they always did. It was bad enough to be watched by the eyes of the aliens, but it was nearly disturbing how they never left their mech-suits, like the ones that had murdered Susie so long ago.

Come to think of it, Calvin couldn't recall the last time he had actually seen an alien out of its mech-suit, no matter how large, like the guards or the one that had leveled his town that fateful night.

Speak of the devil, he thought, as one of the large mech-suits came strolling by. They knew something was up.

Calvin knew it too. None of the other slaves had told him, not even his friend, Jerad (a/n, hmmm, where did I get the name Jerad from?…for those of you who don't know, my real name is Jared…n/m) , and Jerad was one of the smartest slaves in the camp. He was the same age as Calvin, and looked almost a lot like him. Just as tall and had managed to build up an extra coat of muscle over the years of constructing odd mechanisms for the aliens. The only real difference was his blonde hair had been dyed, but two years of trudging in the hot sun had turned it a very whitish-gold.

But he knew. Maybe the slaves were getting ready to make a break for it. This slave camp outnumbered the guards at least four to one, but last night two large mech-suits from Bangor, just north of the camp, had entered the camp and didn't look like they weren't going to leave anytime soon.

As if to drive the point to him, he heard a familiar voice roar over the camp. Jerad had dropped his pole and raised his arms. "Okay, now!" he cried.

The slaves, all line up with their building materials, abruptly dropped them and turned toward the large doors, just big enough for the larger mech-suits.

The guards didn't hesitate in getting into the fight, but at last they realized that the slaves they had sent to recycle old mech-suits apparently knew how to use tools, for several guards pulled out several weapons that they had concealed in their underpants. The first guard, who had raised his arms and loaded their wrist-cannons, immediately took the force of an unattached plasma cannons. Calvin gasped as the guard shattered, simply shattered before him, and red fluid sprayed against the concrete as it clattered against the ground. The alien that had controlled this suit had obviously been killed.

The large mech-suits reared up to their full height and Calvin, who could still smell the burning flesh from two years before, watched in horror as the mech-suit fired its plasma cannons. With a shrill whistle, the green light lanced into the crowd of slaves. Several of the humans screamed in pain as they were skeletonized.

Jerad grunted and motioned to Calvin, who was still holding his pipe. Calvin might still be able to make it, Jerad knew, and if he had only kept his eyes on the suit he would have seen his doom in time.

Calvin cried out when he saw Jerad's skin melt away and then his bones crumble to dust.

The slaves ran blindly now that their leader, Jerad, had been erased from existence.

"Jerad…" whispered Calvin.

* ** *

Calvin had met Jerad two months after Calvin had been committed to the slave camps. He had been aiding the rest of Camp A in construction of a rather large mechanism. One of the slaves had the gull to ask one of the aliens what this devise was for.

"Torture."

And with that, the slave was incinerated by the mech-suit.

Calvin and the other slaves had stopped for a moment to watch as the new wagon arrived with slaves. This time there weren't too many, only about twenty. Most would come to Camp A, because the week before half of the group decided that they could make it over the fence and make it in the country.

They had been wrong.

The slaves were unloaded and escorted to their camps. Calvin was surprised to find that only one was to be fitted in Camp A, Jerad.

At lunchtime, the slaves were escorted to their camps. Calvin made his way over to the new guy, who was also fifteen at the time.

"So, you're the new guy, huh?" He asked, slumping into his poorly made seat. The aliens had been in a hurry for the slaves to start making their devices and adjusting the planet to their whims that they had spent almost no time at all in making their living quarters.

The food was actually good, Calvin could comment. The aliens had appointed one of the slaves to "permanent chef," and was placed right in front of an abandoned Village Market. He would usually heat up a dozen pizzas and some corn, or maybe would just pass around Lunchables, and when food ran low, a transport was sent out to wherever Village Markets Shipping building was. They could find it. Many slaves had been kept in their original positions, running the Hostess factory or in some cases kept a McDonald's open.

That day it was grilled cheese, which was pretty good. The chef, who was only twenty-eight, was a pretty good cook. Calvin had taken two that day, because he had had a pang in his side. Usually good cooked food was good to fix that.

"Yeah, I'm the new guy. What's it to you?" Definitely enmity in his voice. Calvin merely shrugged it off and persisted with his questions.

"I don't know. Just thought you would want a welcoming committee." He looked up at Calvin, obviously pissed and worried. "Well, I don't alright?"

"You got a story too?"

"We all have storied, don't we? Everyone of us was doing something when these guys showed up, and we've all lost somebody, haven't we?"

Calvin nodded, pawning at the ice cream cup that Carl, the chef, had set out with the sandwiches.

"I know what you mean. The first person I lost was my girlfriend. Murdered right before my eyes, like when the Spanish would use to punish traitors and stuff. They would tie a rope to a persons arms, legs, and throat, then connect them to different horses. Would pull them right apart. They did the same to Susie. Then I came home to find my parents were still there…all over the place…"

Calvin didn't realize it, but his eyes were swelling with fat, pregnant tears. The newcomer had watched, his enmity boiling away, as he realized whoever this kid was, he still had feelings too.

"I lost my dad, he was the only parent I had. We had managed to make it into the woods, and we had some perishables with us; a tent, flint and stone, sleeping bags, canned goods, and his rifle with over a hundred rounds of ammunition, for hunting deer…or alien. We thought we would have made it, but then, two days ago, one of those big mech-suits came out into the clearing and lifted its wrist plasma blaster and simply wiped the camp off the face of the earth. My dad was in the tent at the time."

Mech-suit? Plasma blaster? This kid obviously knew what was going on. So far, in the two months of slave hood, he had never heard those words referred to the alien technology. When he thought of it, it did seem to be one large suit, as he had originally thought and feared, and it did make sense that it was a plasma blaster.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm Jerad, by the way." He raised his hand to Calvin.

"I'm Calvin. Pleased to meet you."

* ** *

For the next two years, Calvin and Jerad had worked together in slave hood, talked together when they could, eagerly waited together for the aliens to pair them with some fifteen, then sixteen, then seventeen year old for the mating program (the aliens had finally realized that the humans weren't machines that could just be built, and were indeed limited).

* ** *

The rest of Camp A, the survivors (Calvin and four others) were escorted to the tents after the others had been swept from the edges from the miniature mech-suits.

Calvin indeed felt liked crying. He had lost his second best friend ever. He had never felt so lone before, first after losing Hobbes, then Susie, and now Jerad. Was it too much for him to have friends?

Calvin sighed and collapsed on his bed, panting hard. It was still ten o' clock, but he already felt like wilting under the sun. One of the mech-suits strolled by, humming some tune that Calvin had certainly never heard before. Damned aliens, all cozy in the climated-controlled comfort of their mech-suits.

Although really it had been only fifteen minutes, Calvin was awakened from what felt like a three hour nap. He felt much better, rejuvenated again despite the absence of that cold July air he had felt once, and feared he would never feel again the same way.

The mech-suit that had woken him up was crouching in the entryway of his tent. "New train of slaves coming in. Though you might want to meet your kind, before they decide they don't like it here…" and with that he cocked his plasma cannon.

Calvin gave him the finger after he had turned, and then got out of his bed and strolled back into the hot sun and toward the train.

It was moderately sized, about thirty members, mostly adults, stripped to the waist like Calvin, but he could see one or two kids his age.

Calvin waited awhile, watching who was sorted to which tent, and found, albeit happy and dismayed at the same time, a sixteen year old was to share tents with him.

Calvin waited, but his new roomie never showed, he returned to his tent to sleep.

About ten minutes later he was awakened by a voice. Calvin groaned and sat up to find his new roomate.

"Susie?"